Chapter 324: Chapter 339: Shifting souls

When Rafi jumped down she floated, instead of falling, her dress fluttering slightly and her hat swayed. When she touched the darkness it rippled all the way out to us and she shrank down to no bigger than my larger form. “Hello, girls.”

I hesitantly waited as she approached. Her stride was elegant and mature, but she didn’t look as cold as I remembered her, and she wore a long cloak over her shoulders.

“Rafi?”

“Sort of… In your terms, the big one is mad at you for ghosting her… And the little one is afraid that you’ll yell at her because your sister got hurt… So… They created me so they wouldn’t have to deal with it.”

“Wow… Can you teach me how to do that… Then I really could just ditch class… Oo… If I did it twice then I wouldn’t have to deal with freaky demon parasites either.”

She chuckled, slightly embarrassed and scratching her head. “It’s… Kind of something you can only do once you’ve turned 100% of your soul into moldable form… So it will forever be out of your reach I’m afraid, on account of the dragons blood.”

“Go figure…” I sighed. “Ok… So are you like half and half then?”

“Something like that…”

I looked around, thinking before I sighed again. “Alright… Take me to the little one…”

She chuckled again. “I’m not really sure…”

“I’m not mad, so… There shouldn’t be a problem right?” ‘It can’t be healthy to keep splitting her mind like this… The last thing I need is for her to turn into a demon…’

“Well… Sure… I guess… But.”

“Then take me to her.”

She sighed again and vanished. After a few moments, I saw the same pointy hat slowly peek out from around the archway. “My sister told me… You weren't mad… Is that true?”

“Of course not… I mean, you were trying to help, weren't you? And you kept my sister safe. See...” I elbowed her. “Tell her you're fine…” I whispered.

“Well… it’s still pretty hard to move my hands…”

I elbowed her again.

“I mean I’m fine! Really… So thank you, you know… For the power and stuff...”

She slowly stepped out and came closer. “But I almost got her killed… And you care about her a lot…”

I flinched slightly away from Lu, who couldn’t stop grinning as she stared at me. Clearing my throat, I refocused. “But you didn't, right? And… I… care about you… a lot… too… You chose to help me when no one else would, and even when you were afraid and didn’t want to…”

She stepped forward again, coming within arms reach. “You really worried me… I couldn’t feel you anymore like someone locked you away in a box… I was so scared something horrible happened to you…”

‘If she keeps going like this I’m going to cry…’ “Sorry… I merged my soul with the dragon soul inside of me and some unexpected things hapened.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Oh… Yeah, I figured that out eventually. I even used Lu to help break you out of it again… But… That hurt her even more… Luckily, the dragon's soul repelled all the bad effects too… Are you… Really not mad?” Her anxious expression turned to one of curiosity, looking up at me with a tiled head, leaning slightly forward like she was asking me to pinch her cheeks as punishment.

‘Saying you used her isn’t really helping…’ I sighed again. “Just come here and let me give you a hug,” I said, walking up too her. Just before I could reach her she jumped onto an invisible step to be the taller one, but after a short pause she didn’t refuse the gesture, though… She felt cold to the touch. “I am mad at you though…” I muttered

Her whole body stiffened as if it turned to stone.

“Just not about that.”

She suddenly held on tighter. “Then…”

“You created another version of yourself just because you didn’t want to talk to me? That’s just rude…”

Her grip loosened again as she slowly backed away. “I see… Well… Maybe you’re right… I’m sorry.”

“Can you reabsorb her or whatever?”

She slowly looked to the side, faintly smiling as she tapped the ground with her toes, watching the abyss ripple with every touch. “Well… It’s not like I can’t… But each one of us held as much pain and heartache as we could… And our new sister is half of me and half of big sis… So… If I were to absorb her…”

“You would get more than you gave… And it would hurt more than before…”

“Yeah…”

“Ok… Well… When you're ready to do that… Let me know. I’ll be there for you to help you through it… Even if all I can really do is give you a hug…” Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes, tilting my head back for a moment to relax my shoulders. “Now… As for you…” I growled, turning back to Lu.

“Me? Wait… Hey what did I do?”

I glanced back at her slightly concerned and equally annoyed expression. “Aparently you decided to practically give away your soul in exchange for some crazy powers… That’s obviously not ok…”

“I mean it worked didn’t it…” She grumbled, looking of to the side before a flick to her forehead made her straighten up, her ears twitching as her eyes widened. “Hey!”

I grabbed her shoulders, stoping her from moving. “It’s not like fighting monsters, or becoming a soldier are safe things for you too do… But… That doesn’t mean it’s ok for you to be so reklace either. Do you understand? Just because we know you might die in battle someday does NOT mean we are ok with it…”

She stared back blankly, her skin tightening to goosebumps as her hair stood up on end.

“Do you understand?” I asked again, softly.

“Uh-uhm… Yeah… I get it…”

Rafi suddenly sighed, rolling her eyes. “ You two bring back so many memories… I can’t tell if that’s a good or a bad thing though. Well… We have important things to do, and I’ll need my strength gathered for this… Not spread out…” She floated slightly into the air and her new sister appeared out of the dusted moonlight, shimmering into the air next to her. Without a word she slowly walked up and took off the little one's hat, holding it to her back as they touched foreheads before she vanished the same way she came.

‘Wait… Was that it? But I thought she just said… She’s surprisingly mature about this… But… Won’t her heart break now or something?’ “Rafi?” I said hesitantly. ‘Was she exaggerating?’

As the one’s hand vanished, her hat fell to the ground. She cried glittering dust and black fog as her silver hair shimmered like a bright light, flaring like an electrical curent. After just a moment she turned around and gently traced the brim of her hat with her fingertips before flipping it back to her head without so much as bothering to move her hair out of her face. “Let’s go… In order to converse with the dragon we must all venture into Siya’s soul, this is the plan yes… I will be able to take Lu with us there, but we won’t be able to leave the malleable part of your soul that is blackened by dark magic, so you will have to bring the dragon to us. It won’t be able to enter, so we will have to converse across the border.”

“Right. Ok, I can–” Before I could finish speaking we had already been thrown for a loop and were inside my soul. After regaining my bearings, I headed off to the lava-flooded cavern.

“Hey, old buddy…” I groaned walking to the familiar center platform. “You… Were way off base with half the stuff you told me when we joined souls…”

He just turned up his nose.

‘Wow… He really does hate apologizing…’ I sighed. “It’s fine, I forgive you. I know you weren't lying, just bad at guessing I guess… To make it up to me, you are going to come have a chat with me and my friends.”

“Why should I… You begged me to join you, then you forced us apart?” He growled softly.

‘He’s a lot more tame than before…’ “What happened to you? Are you alright?”

His growl grew louder. “What do you care! You’d rather me be gone wouldn’t you!”

‘What is he… Like a moody 20-something now instead of a grumpy teenager…’ I let out another sigh as I went to sit down next to him only for him to breathe fire on me. For whatever reason it was oddly comforting though, although I did have to replace my clothes again… “My father may have killed you… And tricked me into taking a part of your soul… But that doesn’t mean I want you to die… But even if I did, could you blame me…” I turned my back to him and leaned against his massive scaled leg, finding a strange comfort in the heat of his scales. “How many times did you try to kill me?”

He growled again but didn’t move. “Only once… When I first awakened… Afterward, I could feel your deep remorse for something you didn’t even do… And I couldn’t bring myself to kill you… Though, I suppose… In a certain sense twice… When I changed your body so that you could breathe fire there was a chance of death.” He sighed, lying down. “It will be easier to revert to that form the next time… And even easier the time after, until eventually you will be able to change at will…” He stood up, pushing me over and breathing fire on me again. “Let us meet these friends of yours…”

‘There’s something he’s not telling me… Dragons are literally incapable of change right? So then… What is it that would make him act so differently?’